Need A Plumber Quick? Call This Mopar Guy!

Mopar isn’t merely a brand. It’s a lifestyle. While it offers a similar sense of fierce loyalty and camaraderie as—say—the Harley community, enjoying Mopars doesn’t require facial hair, tattoos, bandanas, and trying to look way more badass than you really are. Mopar guys don’t force their wives to dress up in costume either. Matt Lewis is such a diehard Mopar man that he named his business—Satellite Plumbing & Heating—after his project car! Industrial-grade pipe clamps on the tailpipes further reinforce the connection. This all-encompassing lifestyle that permeates every facet of life is something Chevy and Ford guys will never understand, and it inspired Matt to stick with his B-Body project through the bad times and the good. By tapping into his love of Mopars, Matt soldiered through bouts of stagnation over 14 grueling years to build the tubbed, caged, big-block-powered street warrior he always dreamed of having as a kid.

As a first-generation non-conformist, Matt didn’t inherit the Mopar bug from a friend or family member. Quite the contrary. He gravitated toward them despite enduring a barrage of wisecracks from his friends. “Most of my friends were Chevy and Ford guys, so I was always the odd duck and they let me know it. They always gave me a hard time, but I got over it,” Matt laughs. “Back in the late ’80s my first project car was a ’73 Duster with a 340 small-block. That was the turning point right there, and I didn’t want anything other than Mopars after that. I love the way these cars look and drive. You can be completely out of control but in control at the same time. They’re the oddballs, not the cookie-cutter cars that everyone else has.”

“I love the way these cars look and drive. You can be completely out of control but in control at the same time.” –Matt Lewis

Unfortunately, a momentary lapse in judgment led Matt to part ways with his beloved Duster. “As soon as I sold that car I immediately regretted it. I bought a ’78 Trans Am, and then a ’79 Trans Am, to try to fill the void, but it didn’t work,” Matt laments. “There just wasn’t anything special about those cars. I knew I had to get another Mopar, but I didn’t want another small car. I wanted something bigger like a B-Body, and then found out about a ’67 Satellite that was for sale through a family friend in 1995. We worked out a deal, and I was a Mopar owner once again.”

“Most of my friends were Chevy and Ford guys, so I was always the odd duck and they let me know it. They always gave me a hard time, but I got over it.” –Matt Lewis

Miraculously, the B-Body had survived nearly three decades of New England winters relatively unscathed. “The Satellite had stayed in the same family since it was new. My friend’s grandma bought it new, then passed it on to his dad,” says Matt. “The family took good care of it and always kept the car in a garage, so it still had all the original sheetmetal. All it needed was some patchwork in the quarter-panels and floors. The car was already nice, but I decided that it needed bigger tires, and everything went downhill from there. The pursuit of bigger tires led to mini-tubs, a full eight-point rollcage, and subframe connectors.”

As the project started getting more extreme, Matt decided his goal would be simple. “I wanted to build the car I couldn’t afford to build when I had my Duster. I didn’t want a race car, but I wanted a very streetable car that sat nice and low, something I could drop a Hemi in and run 9s if I wanted to,” he explains. “After deciding to go a little more radical with the project, the rest of the car came apart. We stripped it down, sandblasted the body, then finished up all the metal work. The build was on track and looking great, but then raising kids and the responsibilities of life got in the way. The car sat untouched in my garage for 10 years.”

“They’re the oddballs, not the cookie-cutter cars that everyone else has.” –Matt Lewis

As is often the case with projects built around real-world budgets, Matt’s Satellite had officially entered that precarious phase of stagnation that often leads to more stagnation, a complete loss of interest, and ultimately giving up and listing the car for sale. Fortunately for Matt and his Satellite, Mopar guys don’t believe in this sort of mechanical abortion. Nice, clean, solid Mopars are so hard to come by that once you’ve found one, it’s hard to give them up. Just in case Matt’s commitment wavered, his wife, Paula, made sure to remind him that any setbacks and delays were only temporary.

“I wanted to build the car I couldn’t afford to build when I had my Duster.” –Matt Lewis

Just like Matt’s better half predicted, things eventually took a turn for the better. “By 2005, my kids had gotten older and my job situation improved, so the Satellite project was back on track. With the help of my friend, Steve Atlola, we put the body back together in my garage, and then sent it out for final assembly to two local legends [Blair Smith and Chuck Flake] who happen to be Mopar freaks,” Matt recalls. “While all that was going on, I had Al Degowen at Al’s Motor Works go through the 440. I wanted to set it up with a dual-quad intake and Edelbrock carbs for easy operation and drivability. Next, I had the 727 trans rebuilt, and by 2009 the car was finally back on the road.”

Just because Matt didn’t want an unruly drag car didn’t mean that he was content merely limping around town. As such, the long-gone factory 318 made way for a healthy 446ci big-block. Al’s Engine Works opened up the bores to 4.350 inches, and fitted the block with a stock crank, Manley steel rods, and KB forged pistons. To maximize performance without breaking the bank, Matt opted for a set of ported factory iron “906” castings, and matched them up with an Edelbrock dual-quad intake manifold topped with a pair of 500cfm Performer carbs. A Mopar Performance 248-at-.050 hydraulic flat-tappet camshaft actuates the valves, and exhaust exits through a set of Hooker long-tube headers and dual Flowmaster mufflers. With 440 hp, the big-block Wedge isn’t the most unruly combination out there, but the 505 lb-ft of torque it produces at just 3,400 rpm does provide plenty of off-the-line grunt. Call it being on the well-mannered side of potent.

To keep it all planted to the pavement, Matt had the Calvert Racing mono-leaf springs moved inboard just a hair to make way for the mini-tubs and fat 28x12x15 Mickey Thompson radials. Factory six-cylinder torsion bars, Competition Engineering front shocks, and Calvert Racing adjustable shocks out back provide an affordable yet effective way to manage weight transfer. Meanwhile, a Chrysler 8.75-inch rearend fitted with 4.10:1 gears makes sure there’s plenty of torque multiplication to pull the nose way up in the air. Four-piston front Wilwood disc brakes and big 11-inch factory rear drums are tasked with bringing the B-Body to a halt.

Interestingly, in finished form, the Satellite resembles a tastefully modern rendition of Pro Street. Perhaps the fact that the project started in the mid ’90s—toward the end of the Pro Street heyday—and stretched into 2009 has something to do with it. Although the B-Body has been tubbed, caged, and fitted with Centerline rollers—a cumulative homage to Pro Street—it’s offset by a tastefully modern stance, a street-friendly engine combo, and a comfy interior you’d actually want to sit in. Maybe this is how they should have built them in the ’80s and ’90s?

“I didn’t realize it until now, but I guess my wife was right all along. I’m not ready to admit it yet, though!” –Matt Lewis

As it turns out, perseverance fueled by genuine passion is a powerful combination. Dime-a-dozen Camaros and Chevelles are easy to replace, but cars like Matt’s Satellite prove that toughing it out for a Mopar is always worth the wait. Having the right lady guide you along the way doesn’t hurt either. “I didn’t realize it until now, but I guess my wife was right all along. I just had to be patient and wait for the right time to finish building the car,” Matt concedes. “I’m not ready to admit it yet, though. To hell with that!”

By simply removing the vinyl top, shaving the side trim, and spraying the exterior in PPG Bright Platinum metallic, Matt completely transformed the look of his Satellite. Delux Auto Restoration did a bang-up job with the bodywork.Built more for street shenanigans than all-out power, the 446ci big-block produces more than enough torque to melt the tires. The dual-quad intake draws plenty of stares on cruise night.Tube Chassis Designz (Hanson, MA) gets credit for the cage. The seats are out of a ’66 Dart, and Matt re-upholstered the interior himself. A hidden Polk Audio stereo provides the tunes, and Auto Meter gauges report the engine vitals.A mean stance matched with big Mickey Thompsons gives the Satellite the perfect amount of rake. Makes for a nice looking company car, doesn’t it?Although it flies under the radar of most bystanders, the pipe clamps on the tailpipes are a tribute to Matt’s business: Satellite Plumbing & Heating. We’ve tried Googling “Chevelle Plumbing,” but such a company doesn’t seem to exist.